0.7.65 - Conjured arrows are stacked with permanent arrows and do not expire [RESOLVED]

[UserOfThisSite]

Hello, I know that you already know that you can sell summoned items or store them in wagon so they don't disappear, so you can sell them later, even if there're no shopkeepers around, but I decided to tell about the arrows bug:
If you don't have arrows in your inventory, then everything is alright, you summon new arrows and they disappear after duration. However, if you have at least 1 real arrow, then summoned arrows will be added to normal arrows stack and thus stay with you forever.

Solution: Make a separate stack of enchanted summoned arrows. When you shoot a bow, the game first checks if you have summoned arrows and use them, else it uses real arrows, else you have no arrows.

As for other summoned items, the easiest solution will be to add an enchantment to every summoned item, the enchantment ability is very simple - it sets item's cost to 0. The same enchantment will be applied to summoned arrows. This enchantment will kill 2 cliffraces with 1 stone: 1) you can't enchant summoned item (because it's already enchanted), so later, when you implement enchanting, you don't need to bother with potential exploits where player enchants summoned item and screws everything up by overriding old item with new non-summoned one and 2) you no longer can sell them to shopkeepers... well you can, but the cost is 0 gold, so it's pointless.

[Interkarma]

Welcome to the forums. Please check the bug report guidelines topic for some tips around creating good bug reports. Mentioning your version and providing a clear description of problem in title are very helpful. I amended topic title to clearly describe issue of conjured arrows stacking and not expiring.

I already have some fixes in the pipeline to fix this specific issue, and the problem of selling conjured items. Please note that selling conjured items does match classic, although I don't think its desirable. I plan to make conjured items bound to player (cannot be dropped or sold) and not stackable with non-conjured items.

[Feralwarlord]

I already have some fixes in the pipeline to fix this specific issue, and the problem of selling conjured items. Please note that selling conjured items does match classic, although I don't think its desirable. I plan to make conjured items bound to player (cannot be dropped or sold) and not stackable with non-conjured items.

An alternate solution could be to make selling conjured items a crime, after all I'm sure the shopkeeper isn't to happy when some items sold to them vanish into thin air

[BansheeXYZ]

An alternate solution could be to make selling conjured items a crime, after all I'm sure the shopkeeper isn't to happy when some items sold to them vanish into thin air

Too many problems with that.

-Player might not expect to be charged with a crime.
-Even if he did know, he could sell and leave before the expiration.
-The actual crime is fraud or counterfeiting, not theft, and daggerfall doesn't have those crimes.
-Are we really supposed to believe that a shopkeeper can't tell the difference between a real and conjured item? If the player can, then so can he.

[pango]

I plan to make conjured items bound to player (cannot be dropped or sold) and not stackable with non-conjured items.

If (stacks of) conjured items have different lifetimes, they shouldn't be stackable together.
So maybe they should simply not be stackable with anything else.

[BansheeXYZ]

It's a good idea to look at Morrowind here, which adopted most of Daggerfall's spells and had to solve the same problems. Binding the item to the player solves the problem of dropping or selling impermanent items. It also solves the problem of where to put the duration counter, since a bound item is essentially a buff, so it can be in the HUD like other spell buffs.

Morrowind also auto-equips the created item. Which makes sense, because that's the sole reason for creating it and manually equipping it takes time away from a time sensitive buff.

[UserOfThisSite]

I plan to make conjured items bound to player (cannot be dropped or sold) and not stackable with non-conjured items.

If (stacks of) conjured items have different lifetimes, they shouldn't be stackable together.
So maybe they should simply not be stackable with anything else.

That's actually serious problem, because it'll turn inventory into mess and the game won't know which stack to use, it may start spending newer arrows, while older arrows will be wasted due to expire.
The easiest solution will be to remove this spell at all and add "Arcane arrows" or "Magic arrows" or "Conjure arrows" spell-buff. While this buff is active, you can shoot bow without arrows and real arrows aren't consumed.

[BansheeXYZ]

That's actually serious problem, because it'll turn inventory into mess and the game won't know which stack to use, it may start spending newer arrows, while older arrows will be wasted due to expire.

It's already been said that DFU will deplete conjured arrows first if they exist. Also, classic's limit of 1 conjured item at a time should probably be honored. You can't have a bunch of duration counters, it's too confusing. And what happens when conjured arrows with 10 seconds left are stacking with conjured arrows with 30 seconds left? The spell should be easy to use and understand.

Yes, Morrowind separated the items into their own spells with their own icons to defeat this, but that is a dramatic change. Much different from little mechanical restrictions like no drop, no sell, and no coexistence.